Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 29, 1921 Slaughter of Workers in Mines, Quarries and Metallurgical Plants Continues
From the Duluth Labor World of November 26, 1921:
2,973 KILLED, 206,000 HURT WORKING MINERALS IN 1920 ————-
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24.-Accidents in mines, quarries and metallurgical plants in 1920, exclusive of blasts furnaces in the United States, caused the death of 2,973 employes and the injury of 206,000, according to the bureau of mines.
Based on a standard of 300 working days per man, the statement said: “For every 1000 employes, 3.19 were killed and 221.25 were injured.”
The figures do not indicate the large number of slight injuries causing loss of time of less than one day. In these industries 1,088,000 were employed last year, with an average of 257 working days per man.
———————-
Note: The deadliest month in mining history was December 1907:
The Monongah W. V. Mine Disaster of December 6, 1907 killed 362 miners. The Darr (Pa.) Mine Disaster of December 19, 1907 killed 239 miners.
The Cherry Mine Disaster, follows only the Monongah Mine Disaster and the Dawson Mine Disaster (263 killed, Oct. 22, 1913) for number of men and boys who perished:
The Cherry Ill. Mine Disaster of November 13, 1909 killed 259 miners.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 22, 1910
Washington, D. C. – Congressman Wilson on Plan to Establish Bureau of Mines
From the Duluth Labor World of May 21, 1910:
———-
State to Establish Bureau of Mines Regarded
as Means of Checking Fearful Death Toll
of Those Who Work Beneath the Ground.
Signature of President Only Lacking.
—–
WASHINGTON, D. C., May. 20.—A death toll of over twenty thousand of human lives, lives of miners sacrificed in the United States in the last ten years, has at last forced congress to take the first tardy and hesitating step towards checking the senseless slaughter by establishing a national bureau of mines. The bill now only lacks the president’s signature to become law.
The Monongah W. V. Mine Disaster of December 6, 1907, 362 killed. —–The Darr (Pa.) Mine Disaster of December 19, 1907, 239 killed. —–
Asked as to the immediate effect which a bureau of mines would have upon the everyday life of the miner, Representative [Wiliam B.] Wilson, former secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America, himself a practical coal miner, first drew attention to the terrible loss of life in the American mines as compared with abroad. He said:
———————-
———-